Department of Transport SAP implementation, using IBM as supplier is heavily criticised.

“Successful projects are run by experienced project managers, but the Department failed to
provide that expertise for its shared services project.”

FT story here

Full report here

Well both obviously. But how do you manage this? Well, a clearly defined list of strategic documents help to create the path. For example, the PID is king from a PM perspective, while other strategic documents for Testing, Environments, Data Migration are critical. Getting these done early in the project will help in the long run.

Equally important is ensuring that the people who may be impacted are aware of the content so that they understand what is being done. This affects 2 areas:

• Change Management
• Scope Control

Change Management covers how business change is communicated to the business. Having people on your side makes the whole process of implementing new systems and processes that much easier. How you deal with those who resist change is dependent on the company ethos, but the worst approach is to hope the problem goes away by itself. I have known people who have resisted change and even made significant efforts to thwart a project who subsequently blame the project team for the impact of their actions. Failure to react to sniping is a sign of weakness that will encourage more negative behaviour.

Scope Control is dependent on ensuring that the scope is clearly defined in the first place. The secret is not just saying what is in scope, but defining what is outside scope. By ensuring that the business is educated and involved at an early stage provides the PM with confidence that the subject will not be revisited in the future. And if it is, there is a clear baseline that enables Change Control to manage additional effort required.

A sign on Ted Turner’s desk reads: Do something. Either lead, follow or get out of the way.

Many small organisations will aggregate their demand to enter a market that they have so far neglected, leading schools, colleges and community services to take advantage of outsourcing. This will combine with organic growth in established government markets and the demands of transformation programmes to lift spending in the sector from £7.5bn in 2008 to £10bn in 2013, according to a new report on the subject.

Here